Configuration method and device for uplink control channel resource in multi-antenna scene

ABSTRACT

The present invention discloses a configuration method and device for an uplink control channel resource in multi-antenna scene, the technical solutions of the present invention perform configurations for the uplink control channel resource, to a terminal equipment, by means of a semi-statically configured initial resource and a dynamically configured ACK/NACK Resource Indication (ARI) information indication selection result or offset information, thus implements an uplink control channel resource configuration solution combining dynamic indication with semi-static indication. The method can be achieved in a simple and easy way, and simultaneously can be used in a Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) system and a Time Division Duplexing (TDD) system.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of PCT/CN2011/079437 filed on Sep. 7, 2011, which claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 201010285802.3 entitled “Configuration Method and Device for Uplink Control Channel Resource in Multi-Antenna Scene” filed in the Patent Office of the People's Republic of China on Sep. 17, 2010, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the field of communication technology, in particular to the configuration method and device for uplink control channel resources in multi-antenna scene.

BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

LTE (Long Term Evolution) system adopts HARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request) to improve the reliability of data transmission. When the downlink HARQ function is enabled, UE (User Equipment) decodes the received downlink data package, then feeds back ACK (ACKnowledgement) if decoding succeeds, and feeds back NACK (Negative ACKnowledgement) and requires the base station to retransmit the data package if decoding fails. When the downlink semi-persistent scheduling service is finished, the base station will send SPS (Semi-Persistent Scheduling) resource release indication to UE for informing it to release all resources allocated to the service, and UE will feed back ACK to the base station after correctly receiving the indication. UE needs to send such ACK/NACK feedback information to base station by uplink control channel using uplink control channel resource, for accomplishing HARQ process.

In current research on uplink control channel of LTE advanced system, it is proposed that the UE with multiple transmitting antennas can use the transmit diversity scheme of SORTD (Spatial Orthogonal Resource Transmit Diversity) to transmit uplink control channel, in order to enhance the reliability or capacity of uplink control signaling transmission. SORTD means each antenna port corresponds to one uplink control channel resource, and the same information is spread with the orthogonal sequences selected by the resource indexes of different antenna ports respectively, then simultaneously transmitted through corresponding antenna ports. The receiving end separates the signal from various antenna ports and performs combined detection, thus obtaining diversity gain. FIG. 1 refers to the schematic diagram of transmit diversity by SORTD when two antenna ports exist in present technology, in which s is the fed back ACK/NACK information, while n₁ ^(PUCCH) and n² ^(PUCCH) represent the two different uplink control channel resource indexes of the two antenna ports respectively. UE will feed back ACK/NACK information on these two feedback channels, to realize the transmit diversity of PUCCH (Physical Uplink Control Channel).

In Rel-8 LTE system, for the dynamical scheduling ACK/NACK transmitted by PUCCH format 1/1a/1b, the UE will calculate the resource (i.e. channel) index (n_(AN)) used for ACK/NACK feedback by the CCE (Control Channel Element) index (n_(CCE)) occupied by downlink control signaling received through PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel), i.e. each PDCCH corresponds to one available PUCCH format 1/1a/1b uplink control channel resource, which is referred to as “implicit resource” in below for short. During implementation of the embodiments of the present invention, the applicant finds that the following problems at least exist in the available technology:

In LTE advanced system, the UE configured with multiple transmitting antennas can use transmit diversity scheme of SORTD to transmit PUCCH, in order to improve the reliability or capacity of uplink control signaling transmission. In case of supporting transmit diversity, each antenna port shall be allocated with an uplink control channel resource. However in the present technology, no technical solution can realize the aforementioned configuration and solve the problem.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The embodiments of the present invention provides a configuration method and device for uplink control channel resource in multi-antenna scene to achieve the purpose of resource configuration for uplink control channel by combining dynamic indication and semi-static indication.

To achieve the aforementioned purpose, the embodiments of the present invention provide a configuration method for uplink control channel resources in multi-antenna scene, which including:

A terminal equipment with multi-antenna receives downlink control information carrying ARI information, and the downlink control information is sent by a network side equipment;

The terminal equipment selects one channel resource group or one channel resource corresponding to the ARI information from the initial channel resource set configured by the network side equipment, and the initial channel resource set comprises multiple channel resource groups or channel resources;

The terminal equipment determines the channel resources in the selected channel resource group as uplink control channel resources for multi-antenna transmission, or determines the selected channel resource and the other channel resources determined by the selected channel resource and the offset values as uplink control channel resources for multi-antenna transmission.

In a further aspect, the embodiments of the present invention also provide a terminal equipment with multi-antenna, which comprises:

Receiving module, is used for receiving downlink control information carrying ARI information, and the downlink control information is sent by the network side equipment;

Selection module, is used for selecting one channel resource group or one channel resource corresponding to ARI information received by the receiving module from the initial channel resource set configured by the network side equipment, and the initial channel resource set comprises multiple channel resource groups or channel resources;

Offset module, is used for obtaining other channel resources through the channel resource and the offset values when the selected result of the selection module is one channel resource;

Determination module, is used for determining the channel resources in the channel resources group selected by the selection module as uplink control channel resources for multi-antenna transmission, or determining the channel resource selected by the selection module and the other channel resources obtained by the offset module as uplink control channel resources for multi-antenna transmission.

In a further aspect, the embodiments of the present invention also provide a configuration method for uplink control channel resources under multi-antenna scene, which comprises:

A network side equipment selects one channel resource group or one channel resource from the initial channel resource set configured to a terminal equipment with multi-antenna, and the initial channel resource set comprises multiple channel resource groups or channel resources;

The network side equipment determines the channel resources in the selected channel resource group as uplink control channel resources for multi-antenna transmission of the terminal equipment, or the selected channel resource and other channel resources determined by the channel resource and offset values as uplink control channel resources for multi-antenna transmission of the terminal equipment;

The network side equipment sends downlink control information carrying ARI information in order to configure the uplink control channel resources for the terminal equipment, and the ARI information corresponds to the channel resource group or channel resource to the terminal equipment.

In a further aspect, the embodiments of the present invention also provide a network side equipment, which comprises:

Selection module, is used for selecting one channel resource group or one channel resource from the initial channel resource set configured for a terminal equipment with multi-antenna, and the initial channel resource set comprises multiple channel resource groups or channel resources;

Offset module, is used for obtaining offset channel resources through the channel resources and the offset values when the selected result of the selection module is one channel resources;

Determination module, is used for determining the channel resources in the channel resource group selected by the selection module as uplink control channel resources for multi-antenna transmission of the terminal equipment, or determining the other channel resources according to the channel resource selected by the selection module and the offset values obtained from offset module as uplink control channel resources for multi-antenna transmission of the terminal equipment;

Sending module, is used for sending downlink control information carrying ARI information to configure the uplink control channel resources for terminal equipment, and the ARI information corresponds to one channel resource group or one channel resource selected by the selection module to terminal equipment.

In a further aspect, the embodiments of the present invention also provide a configuration method for uplink control channel resources under multi-antenna scene, which comprises:

A terminal equipment with multi-antenna receives downlink control information carrying ARI information, and the downlink control information is sent by a network side equipment;

The terminal equipment determines uplink control channel resources corresponding to its own multiple antennas according to the initial channel resource group or initial channel resource configured by the network side equipment and the offset values corresponding to the ARI information.

In a further aspect, the embodiments of the present invention also provide a terminal equipment with multi-antenna, which comprises:

Receiving module, is used for receiving downlink control information carrying ARI information, and the downlink control information is sent by the network side equipment;

Determination module, is used for determining uplink control channel resources for multi-antenna transmission according to the initial channel resource group or the initial channel resource configured by the network side equipment and the offset values corresponding to the ARI information.

In a further aspect, the embodiments of the present invention also provide a configuration method for uplink control channel resources under multi-antenna scene, which comprises:

A network side equipment determines uplink control channel resources for multi-antenna transmission according to the initial channel resource group or the initial channel resource configured for a terminal equipment with multi-antenna and the offset values;

The network side equipment sends downlink control information carrying ARI information to configure the uplink control channel resources for the terminal equipment, and the ARI information corresponds to the offset values to the terminal equipment.

In a further aspect, the embodiments of the present invention also provide a network side equipment, which comprises:

Determination module, is used for determining uplink control channel resources for multi-antenna transmission according to the initial channel resource group or the initial channel resource configured for a terminal equipment with multi-antenna and the offset values;

Sending module, is used for sending downlink control information carrying ARI information to configure the uplink control channel resources for the terminal equipment, and the ARI information corresponds to the offset values to the terminal equipment.

Compared with available technology, the embodiments of the present invention have the following advantages:

Technical solutions of the present invention the uplink control channel resources are configured to a terminal equipment, by means of a semi-statically configured initial resource then dynamically configured ACK/NACK Resource Indication (ARI) information to indicate the selection result or offset information, thus achieve the resource allocation scheme of uplink control channel combining with dynamic indication and semi-static indication. The method can be achieved in a simple and easy way, and simultaneously can be used in FDD system and TDD system.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is the schematic diagram of transmit diversity by SORTD in case of two antenna ports in the present technology;

FIG. 2 is the flow diagram of a configuration method for uplink control channel resources under multi-antenna scene of application strategy I provided in embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is the flow diagram of a configuration method for uplink control channel resources under multi-antenna scene of specific scene provided in embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is the flow diagram of a configuration method for uplink control channel resources under multi-antenna scene of another specific scene provided in embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is the structure diagram of a terminal equipment provided in embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is the structure diagram of a network side equipment provided in embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is the flow diagram of a configuration method for uplink control channel resources under multi-antenna scene of application strategy II provided in embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is the flow diagram of a configuration method for uplink control channel resources under multi-antenna scene of another specific scene provided in embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is the flow diagram of a configuration method for uplink control channel resources under multi-antenna scene of another specific scene provided in embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is the structure diagram of a terminal equipment provided in embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is the structure diagram of a network side equipment provided in embodiment of the present invention;

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In LTE advanced system, the UE configured with multiple transmitting antennas can use transmit diversity scheme of SORTD to transmit PUCCH, in order to improve the reliability or capacity of uplink control signaling transmission.

However, in order to support transmit diversity, uplink control channel resources shall be configured to two antenna ports respectively, but no corresponding solution is proposed in present technology, so the embodiments of the present invention offers a method of resource configuration when uplink control channel is transmitted by SORTD.

The embodiments of the present invention provides a configuration method of uplink control channel resources under multi-antenna scene to configure uplink control channel resource for terminal equipment by combining dynamic indication with semi-static indication.

In the embodiments of the present invention, uplink control channel resource is configured through the following two strategies according to the differences between the contents of semi-static indication and dynamic indication:

Strategy I. The initial candidate resource set is semi-statically configured, then a selected result to allocate uplink control channel resource is dynamically indicated.

Strategy II. The initial resource is semi-statically configured, then a offset information to allocate uplink control channel resource is dynamically indicated.

The approaches to the aforementioned two strategies shall be explained hereinbelow through specific embodiments respectively.

FIG. 2 is the flow diagram of a configuration method for uplink control channel resources under multi-antenna scene of application strategy I provided in embodiment of the present invention, which comprises the following steps:

Step S201: A terminal equipment with multi-antenna receives the higher layer signaling carrying initial channel resource set information, and the higher layer signaling is sent by network side equipment.

A network side equipment configures the initial channel resource set to the terminal equipment through this step, i.e. the aforesaid initial candidate resource set.

Therein, the initial channel resource set includes at least one channel resource group or one channel resource.

It needs to be pointed out that the aforementioned initial channel resource set can be shared by several terminal equipments, but in specific application process, to avoid resource conflict, the same channel resource group or the same channel resource is only allocated to a unique terminal equipment in the same subframe.

Step S202: Terminal equipment receives the downlink control information carrying ARI (ACK/NACK Resource Indicator) information, and the downlink control information is sent by network side equipment.

When the implicit resource corresponding to PDCCH CCE is available to the terminal equipment, the specific size of ARI information is ┌log₂(N+1)┐ bits, while different values of ARI information correspond to the implicit resources and all channel resource groups or channel resources in the initial channel resource set respectively;

When the implicit resource corresponding to PDCCH CCE is unavailable to the terminal equipment, or the terminal equipment transmits feedback information through PUCCH format 3, the specific size of ARI information is ┌log₂ N┐ bits, while different values of ARI information correspond to all channel resource groups or channel resources in the initial channel resource set respectively;

Therein, N refers to number of channel resource groups or channel resources comprised in the initial channel resource set configured by the network side equipment.

In a further aspect, among downlink control information, ARI information can be carried in the following three ways:

(1) The information is carried by newly-increased bits of the DCI (Downlink Control Information) sent by network side equipment.

(2) The information is obtained by joint coding with the other original information in the DCI sent by the network side equipment.

(3) The information is carried by the original information field in the DCI sent by the network side equipment.

Step S203: Terminal equipment selects one channel resource group or one channel resource corresponding to ARI information from the initial channel resource set configured by network side equipment.

Step S204: The terminal equipment determines the channel resources in the selected channel resource group as uplink control channel resources for multi-antenna transmission, or determines the selected channel resource and the other channel resources determined by the selected channel resource and the offset values as uplink control channel resources for multi-antenna transmission.

It needs to be pointed out that the methods for acquiring the aforementioned offset values involve:

(1) Terminal equipment acquires the offset values by receiving the higher layer signaling carrying offset value information, and the higher layer signaling is sent by network side equipment.

(2) The offset values are preset in the terminal equipment and the network side equipment.

It can be seen from the above explanation that corresponding differences exist in subsequent processing procedures when the contents configured to terminal equipment in step S201 are different:

Case I: The configured initial channel resource set refers to the set with at least one channel resource group.

Under such case, ARI information indicates the selected result directly, and the terminal equipment selects one channel resource group corresponding to ARI information in the channel resource set based on the selected result, and directly determine the channel resources in the channel resource group as its own uplink control channel resources.

Case II. The configured initial channel resource set refers to at least the set of one channel resource.

Under such case, the selected result indicated by ARI information is only one channel resource, while for the terminal equipment with multi-antenna, the channel resource of the other antenna needs to be determined. Therefore, the offset value is further introduced in technical solution of the embodiments of the present invention. Based on the indicated channel resource, offset processing is performed to obtain the channel resources for the other antennas, thus determining the channel resource indicated by ARI information and the other channel resources after offset processing as the uplink control channel resources corresponding to its own multiple antennas.

To further explain the technical solutions put forward in the embodiments of the present invention, the present invention is described by the following embodiments corresponding to the above two cases.

Firstly, case I mentioned above will be explained.

In the system of such case, network side equipment semi-statically allocated one uplink control channel resource set to terminal equipment through higher layer signaling. The set has N≧1 groups of elements and each group corresponds to two channel resource numbers (n_(x,1) ^(PUCCH), n_(x,2) ^(PUCCH)) available to ACK/NACK feedback. Therein, x=0, 1, . . . , N−1 is the index of the elements in the set, and the channel resource element in the set can be shared by multiple terminal equipments.

It needs to be pointed out that, the aforementioned configuration scheme is for the scene of the terminal equipment with two antennas. As for the scene of terminal equipment with more antennas, the elements in the element group can comprise more, i.e. the number of elements included in each element group is consistent with the number of antennas.

During downlink data scheduling, network side equipment informs the terminal equipment which resource group in the set is used to transmit corresponding ACK/NACK of downlink data through ARI information in PDCCH.

The network side equipment restricts that at most one terminal equipment can be allocated with the same group of channel resources in one subframe by scheduling, in order to avoid channel resource collision.

Therein, the aforementioned ARI information can be the newly increased bits in the DCI format used for downlink scheduling, or joint coding with the other signaling in the current DCI format of Rel-8, or even reuse of the signaling in current DCI format. Specifically which form will be used to indicate ARI information can be adjusted according to actual needs, and such changes will not affect the protection scope of the present invention.

In such cases, specific value of ARI can be divided into three situations as below:

(1) When terminal equipment transmits ACK/NACK through PUCCH format 1/1a/1b,

A. If terminal equipment can use corresponding implicit resource of PDCCH CCE, the size of ARI will be ┌log₂(N+1)┐ bits, where one state to indicate the implicit resource will be preserved. For example, when N=3 and the size of ARI is ┌log₂(3+1)┐=2 bits, resource mapping can be conducted by following Table 1 below:

TABLE 1 ARI Mapping Diagram ARI valve PUCCH resource 00 Implied resource 01 (n_(0,1) ^(PUCCH), n_(0,2) ^(PUCCH)) 10 (n_(1,1) ^(PUCCH), n_(1,2) ^(PUCCH)) 11 (n_(2,1) ^(PUCCH), n_(2,2) ^(PUCCH))

The above mapping relation is only an optimal example given by the embodiments of the present invention. In actual application, mapping relations of other forms can also be applied, and such changes will not affect the protection scope of the present invention.

The aforementioned explanation is also applicable to subsequent embodiments, i.e. the mapping relations given in subsequent embodiments also possess the above characteristics, which only refer to optimal examples and will not be explained hereinafter.

B. If terminal equipment does not use the implicit resource, the size of ARI will be ┌log₂ N┐ bits. For example, when N=4 and the size of ARI is ┌log₂ 4┐=2 bits, resource mapping can be conducted by following Table 2:

TABLE 2 ARI Mapping Diagram ARI valve PUCCH resource 00 (n_(0,1) ^(PUCCH), n_(0,2) ^(PUCCH)) 01 (n_(1,1) ^(PUCCH), n_(1,2) ^(PUCCH)) 10 (n_(2,1) ^(PUCCH), n_(2,2) ^(PUCCH)) 11 (n_(3,1) ^(PUCCH), n_(3,2) ^(PUCCH))

(2) If terminal equipment transmits ACK/NACK through PUCCH format 3 and the size of ARI is ┌log₂ N┐ bits, the specific processing procedure is similar to case B above. And corresponding resource mapping can be performed according to Table 2, which will not be explained here.

Based on the above explanation, under such case, FIG. 3 is the schematic diagram of the configuration method for uplink control channel resources under multi-antenna scene of a specific scene provided by embodiment of the present invention, which comprises the following steps:

Step S301: A terminal equipment reads higher layer configuration signaling and acquires the uplink control channel resource set configured to the terminal equipment by a network side equipment, {(n_(0,1) ^(PUCCH), n_(0,2) ^(PUCCH)), (n_(1,1) ^(PUCCH), n_(1,2) ^(PUCCH)), . . . , (n_(N−1,1) ^(PUCCH), n_(N−1,2) ^(PUCCH))}.

Step S302: The terminal equipment detects PDCCH and reads ARI information, then acquires the channel resource index X used for corresponding ACK/NACK feedback and determines to use a certain resource group in the set or the implicit resource.

Step S303: The terminal equipment receives PDSCH and decodes to obtain ACK/NACK feedback information.

Step S304: The terminal equipment sends the ACK/NACK feedback information obtained in step S303 using two antenna ports with the channel resources determined in step S302.

On the other hand, description of the case II above is made.

In the system of such case, a network side equipment semi-statically allocates one uplink control channel resource set to a terminal equipment through higher layer signaling. The set has N≧1 elements and each one corresponds to one channel resource index n_(x,1) ^(PUCCH) available to ACK/NACK feedback. Therein, x=0, 1, . . . , N−1 is the index of element in the set, and the channel resource elements in the set can be shared by multiple terminal equipments.

During downlink data scheduling, the network side equipment informs the terminal equipment which resource in the set, such as n^(x,1) ^(PUCCH) should be used to transmit corresponding ACK/NACK of downlink data by a certain predetermined antenna port (e.g. antenna port 1), through ARI information in PDCCH that.

Then terminal equipment can obtain the resource for another antenna port according to a fixed offset value (Δ_(offset)), i.e. n_(x,1) ^(PUCCH)+Δ_(offset). Therein, Δ_(offset) can be configured either by higher layer semi-statically or preset by system.

The network side equipment restricts that at most one terminal equipment can be allocated for the same channel resource in one subframe through scheduling, in order to avoid channel resource collision.

Therein, the aforementioned ARI information can be the newly increased bits in the DCI format used for downlink scheduling, or joint coding with the other signaling in the current DCI format of Rel-8, or even reuse of the signaling in current DCI format. Specifically which form will be used to indicate ARI information can be adjusted according to actual needs, and such changes will not affect the protection scope of the present invention.

In such cases, specific value of ARI can be divided into three situations as below:

(1) When ACK/NACK is transmitted through PUCCH format 1/1a/1b,

A. If the terminal equipment can use corresponding implicit resource of PDCCH CCE, the size of ARI will be ┌log₂(N+1)┐ bits, where one state to indicate the implicit resource will be preserved. For example, when N=3 and the size of ARI is ┌log₂(3+1)┐=2 bits, resource mapping can be conducted by following Table 3 below:

Table 3 ARI Mapping Diagram ARI valve PUCCH resource 00 Implied resource 01 n_(0,1) ^(PUCCH) 10 n_(1,1) ^(PUCCH) 11 n_(2,1) ^(PUCCH)

B. If the terminal equipment does not use the implicit resource, the size of ARI will be ┌log₂ N┐ bits. For example, when N=4 and the size of ARI is ┌log₂ 4┐=2 bits, resource mapping can be conducted by following Table 4:

TABLE 4 ARI Mapping Diagram ARI valve PUCCH resource 00 n_(0,1) ^(PUCCH) 01 n_(1,1) ^(PUCCH) 10 n_(2,1) ^(PUCCH) 11 n_(3,1) ^(PUCCH)

(2) If the terminal equipment transmits ACK/NACK through PUCCH format 3 and the size of ARI is ┌log₂ N┐ bits, the specific processing procedure is similar to case B above. And corresponding resource mapping can be performed according to Table 4, which will not be explained here.

Based on the above explanation, under such case, FIG. 4 is the schematic diagram of the configuration method for uplink control channel resources under multi-antenna scene of another specific scene provided by embodiment of the present invention, which comprises the following steps:

Step S401: A terminal equipment reads higher layer configuration signaling and acquires the uplink control channel resource set configured to the terminal equipment by a network side equipment {n_(0,1) ^(PUCCH), n_(1,1) ^(PUCCH), . . . , n_(N−1,1) ^(PUCCH)}, and the offset value, Δ_(offset);

Step S402: The terminal equipment detects PDCCH, reads ARI information, and acquires the channel resource index X used for corresponding ACK/NACK feedback.

The terminal equipment determines to use a certain resource n_(x,1) ^(PUCCH) in the set or the implicit resource for a preset antenna port (e.g. antenna port 1).

The terminal equipment calculates the resource index n_(x,1) ^(PUCCH)+Δ_(offset) corresponding to another antenna port based on n_(x,1) ^(PUCCH)and Δ_(offset).

Step S403: The terminal equipment receives PDSCH (Physical Downlink Shared Channel) and decodes to obtain ACK/NACK feedback information.

Step S404: The terminal equipment sends the ACK/NACK feedback information obtained in step S403 using two antenna ports with the channel resources determined in step S402.

Compared with available technology, the embodiments of the present invention have the following advantages:

Technical solutions of the present invention the uplink control channel resources are configured to a terminal equipment, by means of a semi-statically configured initial resource then dynamically configured ACK/NACK Resource Indication (ARI) information to indicate the selection result or offset information, thus achieve the resource allocation scheme of uplink control channel combining with dynamic indication and semi-static indication. The method can be achieved in a simple and easy way, and simultaneously can be used in FDD system and TDD system.

To realize the aforementioned technical solutions of the embodiment of the present invention corresponding to strategy I, the embodiments of the present invention also provides the terminal equipment with the structural diagram shown in FIG. 5, which comprises:

Receiving module 51, is used for receiving downlink control information carrying ARI information, and the downlink control information is sent by the network side equipment;

Selection module 52, is used for selecting the channel resource group or channel resource corresponding to ARI information received by receiving module 51 from the initial channel resource set configured by network side equipment. The initial channel resource set comprises several channel resource groups or channel resources;

Offset module 53, is used for obtaining the other channel resources through the channel resource and the offset values when the selected result by selection module 52 is one channel resource;

Determination module 54, is used for determining the channel resources in the channel resource group selected by selection module 52 as the uplink control channel resources for multi-antenna transmission, or determining the other channel resources according the channel resource selected by selection module 52 and the offset obtained from offset module 53 as the uplink control channel resources for multi-antenna transmission.

In specific application scene, receiving module 51 is also used to receive the higher layer signaling carrying the initial channel resource, and the higher layer signaling is set information sent by network side equipment;

Therein, a channel resource group or a channel resource in the initial channel resource set is only allocated to a unique terminal equipment in the same subframe.

In a further aspect, determination module 54 comprises:

Determination module 54 regards the channel resource corresponding to ARI information selected from the initial channel resource set configured by selection module 52 in network side equipment as the uplink control channel resource of an antenna in multi-antenna;

Determination module 54 regards the offset channel resources generated by offset module 53 through the channel resource and the offset value as the uplink control channel resource s of other antennas in multi-antenna.

Correspondingly, the embodiments of the present invention also provide the network side equipment, with the structural diagram shown in FIG. 6, comprising:

Selection module 61, is used for selecting one channel resource group or one channel resource from the initial channel resource set configured to a terminal equipment with multi-antenna, and the initial channel resource set comprises multiple channel resource groups or channel resources;

Offset module 62, is used for obtaining the offset channel resource through the channel resource and the offset value when the selected results by selection module 61 is one channel resource;

Determination module 63, is used for determining the channel resources in the channel resource group selected by selection module 61 as the uplink control channel resources for multi-antenna transmission of the terminal equipment, or determining channel resource selected by selection module 61 and the other channel resources determined by offset module 62 through the channel resource and the offset value as the uplink control channel resources for multi-antenna transmission of the terminal equipment;

Sending module 64, is used for sending the downlink control information carrying ARI information to configure uplink control channel resources for terminal equipment, and the downlink control information corresponds to one channel resource group or one channel resource selected by selection module 61 to terminal equipment.

In specific application scene, sending module 64 is also used for sending higher layer signaling carrying initial channel resource set information to terminal equipment;

Therein, sending module 64 ensures one channel resource group or one channel resource comprised from the initial channel resource set is only allocated to a unique terminal equipment in the same subframe by sending scheduling information to the terminal equipment.

Compared with available technology, the embodiments of the present invention have the following advantages:

Technical solutions of the present invention the uplink control channel resources are configured to a terminal equipment, by means of a semi-statically configured initial resource then dynamically configured ACK/NACK Resource Indication (ARI) information to indicate the selection result or offset information, thus achieve the resource allocation scheme of uplink control channel combining with dynamic indication and semi-static indication. The method can be achieved in a simple and easy way, and simultaneously can be used in FDD system and TDD system.

The aforementioned strategy II is further explained below.

FIG. 7 is the flow diagram of a configuration method for uplink control channel resources under multi-antenna scene of application strategy II provided in embodiment of the present invention, which comprises the following steps:

Step S701: A terminal equipment with multi-antenna receives higher layer signaling carrying the initial channel resource group information or the initial channel resource information, and the higher layer signaling is sent by a network side equipment.

Through this step, the network side equipment configures the initial channel resource for terminal equipment, i.e. the initial resource mentioned before.

Therein, the initial channel resource comprises one channel resource group or channel resource.

It needs to be pointed out that the aforementioned initial channel resource can be shared by several terminal equipments, however in specific application process, to avoid resource confliction, one channel resource group or one channel resource can only be allocated to one terminal equipment in the same subframe.

Step S702: The terminal equipment receives the downlink control information carrying ARI information, and the downlink control information is sent by network side equipment.

In downlink control information, the specific mode for carrying ARI information can comprise the following three kinds:

(1) The information is carried by newly-increased bits in the DCI sent by network side equipment.

(2) The information is obtained by joint coding with the other original information in the DCI sent by the network side equipment.

(3) The information is carried in the original information field in the DCI sent by the network side equipment.

Step S703: The terminal equipment determines the uplink control channel resources corresponding to its own multiple antennas according to the initial channel resource group or the initial channel resource configured by the network side equipment as well as the offset values corresponding to ARI information.

It can be seen from the above explanation that corresponding difference also exists in subsequent processing procedure when the contents configured for terminal equipment in step S701 are different:

Case I: The initial channel resource configured is one channel resource group.

The terminal equipment determines the uplink control channel resources corresponding to its own multiple antennas according to all initial channel resources in the initial channel resource group and the offset values corresponding to ARI information respectively.

Under such case, the offset values corresponding to ARI information refers to one or more offset values specifically.

Based on it, the processing procedure of step S703 can be:

The terminal equipment determines the uplink control channel resources corresponding to its own multiple antennas according to all initial channel resources in the initial channel resource group and the same offset value respectively; or,

The terminal equipment determines the uplink control channel resource corresponding to its own multiple antennas according to all initial channel resources in initial channel resource group and different offset values respectively.

Case II: The initial channel resource configured refers to one channel resource.

The terminal equipment determines the first offset channel resource according to the initial channel resource and the offset value corresponding to ARI information, while the other offset channel resources based on the first offset channel resource and the fixed offset values, and determines the first offset channel resource and the other offset channel resources as the corresponding uplink control channel resources of its own multiple antennas.

Under such case, the offset corresponding to ARI information refers to one offset value specifically.

It needs to be pointed out that the fixed offset values mentioned above are configured through the following methods:

(1) The terminal equipment obtains the fixed offset values by receiving the higher layer signaling carrying offset value information sent by network side equipment.

(2) The fixed offset values are preset in the terminal equipment and the network side equipment.

Further to explain the technical solutions put forward in the embodiments of the present invention, the embodiments below will be described corresponding to the above two cases.

Firstly, case I mentioned above will be explained.

In the system under such case, the network side equipment semi-statically allocates two-element group (n₁ ^(PUCCH), n₂ ^(PUCCH)) composed by two uplink control channel resources to the terminal equipment through higher layer signaling. The channel resource element can be shared by many terminal equipments.

It needs to be pointed out that the aforementioned configuration scheme is for the scene of the terminal equipment with two antennas. As for the scene of terminal equipment with more antennas, the aforesaid element group can comprise more elements, i.e. the number of elements included in each element group is consistent with the number of antennas.

During downlink data scheduling, the network side equipment informs the terminal equipment of the offset values between actually used resource and (n_(x,1) ^(PUCCH), n_(x,2) ^(PUCCH)) through ARI information in PDCCH.

The network side equipment restricts that at most one terminal equipment can be allocated for the same group of channel resources in one subframe through scheduling, in order to avoid channel resource collision.

Therein, the aforementioned ARI information can be the newly increased bits in the DCI format used for downlink scheduling, or joint coding with the other signaling in the current DCI format of Rel-8, or even reuse of the signaling in current DCI format. Specifically which form will be used to indicate ARI information can be adjusted according to actual needs, and such changes will not affect the protection scope of the present invention.

In such cases, specific value of ARI can be divided into three situations as below:

(1) Two antenna ports can adopt the same offset Δ_(offset), and the uplink control channel resources actually used are (n₁ ^(PUCCH)+Δ_(offset), n₂ ^(PUCCH)+Δ_(offset)); Supposing Δ_(offset) has M values, the size of ARI is ┌log₂ M┐ bits. For example, when M=4, the size of ARI is ┌log₂ 4┐=2 bits and resource mapping can be conducted according to Table 5 below:

TABLE 5 ARI Mapping Diagram ARI valve Δ_(offset) Value 00 −1 01 0 10 1 11 2

(2) The two antenna ports can also use the different offset values, i.e. Δ_(offset) and Δ_(offset2), then the uplink control channel resources actually used are (n₁ ^(PUCCH)+Δ_(offset), n₂ ^(PUCCH)+Δ_(offset2)); Supposing Δ_(offset) has M values, ARI is composed if two parts: ARI1 and ARI2, and each part includes ┌log₂ M┐ bits. For example, when M=2, the size of ARIx is 1 bit and resource mapping can be conducted according to Table 6 below, and for the different ARIx, the values of Δ_(offset) can be different:

TABLE 6 ARI Mapping Diagram ARIx Value Δ_(offset) Value 0 0 1 1

Based on the above description, under such case, FIG. 8 is the flow diagram of a configuration method for uplink control channel resources under multi-antenna scene of another specific scene provided in embodiment of the present invention, which comprises the following steps:

Step S801: A terminal equipment reads higher layer configuration signaling and acquires the two uplink control channel resources (n_(x,1) ^(PUCCH), n_(x,2) ^(PUCCH)) configured for the terminal equipment by a network side equipment.

Step S802: The terminal equipment detects PDCCH, reads ARI information, acquires the offset value of resource index and calculates the channel resource indexes actually used, with detailed description as follows:

(1) When two antenna ports adopt the same offset Δ_(offset), the channel resources actually used by terminal equipment are (n₁ ^(PUCCH)+Δ_(offset), n₂ ^(PUCCH)+Δ_(offset)).

(2) When two antenna ports adopt various offset Δ_(offset) and Δ_(offset2), the channel resources actually used are (n₁ ^(PUCCH)+Δ_(offset1), n₂ ^(PUCCH)+Δ_(offset2)).

Step S803: The terminal equipment receives PDSCH and decodes to obtain ACK/NACK feedback information.

Step S804: The terminal equipment sends the ACK/NACK feedback information obtained in step S803 using two antenna ports with the channel resources determined in step S802.

In a further aspect, description of the case II above is made.

In the system under such case, the network side equipment semi-statically allocates one uplink control channel resource n₁ ^(PUCCH) to the terminal equipment through higher layer signaling. The channel resource element can be shared by many terminal equipments.

During downlink data scheduling, the network side equipment informs the terminal equipment of the offset value Δ_(offset1) between the actually used resource for a certain preset antenna port (e.g. antenna port 1) and n¹ ^(PUCCH), i.e. the actually used resource is n₁ ^(PUCCH)+Δ_(offset1), and the terminal equipment obtains the resource used by another antenna port, n₁ ^(PUCCH)+Δ_(offset1)+Δ_(offset2) based on a fixed offset value (Δ_(offset2)). Therein, the fixed offset value Δ_(offer2) can be either configured semi-statically by higher layer or preset by system. Supposing Δ_(offset1) has M values, the size of ARI is ┌log₂ M┐ bits. Its specific processing is similar to the situation corresponding to Table 5 mentioned above and corresponding resource mapping can be conducted according to Table 5, which will not be repeated here.

The network side equipment restricts that at most one terminal equipment can be allocated for the same group of channel resources in one subframe through scheduling, in order to avoid channel resource collision.

Therein, the aforementioned ARI information can be the newly increased bits in the DCI format used for downlink scheduling, or joint coding with the other signaling in the current DCI format of Rel-8, or even reuse of the signaling in current DCI format. Specifically which form will be used to indicate ARI information can be adjusted according to actual needs, and such changes will not affect the protection scope of the present invention.

Based on the above description, under such case, FIG. 9 is the flow diagram of a configuration method for uplink control channel resources under multi-antenna scene of another specific scene provided in embodiment of the present invention, which comprises the following steps:

Step S901: A terminal equipment reads higher layer configuration signaling and acquires the one uplink control channel resource n₁ ^(PUCCH) and a fixed offset value Δ_(offset2) configured to the terminal equipment by a network side equipment.

Step S902: The terminal equipment detects PDCCH, reads ARI information, acquires the offset value Δ_(offset1) of resource index and calculates the channel resource indexes actually used:

The resource corresponding to antenna port 1 is n₁ ^(PUCCH)+Δ_(offset);

The resource corresponding to antenna port 2 is n₁ ^(PUCCH)+Δ_(offset1)+Δ_(offset2).

Step S903: The terminal equipment receives PDSCH and decodes to obtain ACK/NACK feedback information.

Step S904: The terminal equipment sends the ACK/NACK feedback information obtained in step S903 using two antenna ports with the channel resources determined in step S902.

Compared with available technology, the embodiments of the present invention have the following advantages:

Technical solutions of the present invention the uplink control channel resources are configured to a terminal equipment, by means of a semi-statically configured initial resource then dynamically configured ACK/NACK Resource Indication (ARI) information to indicate the selection result or offset information, thus achieve the resource allocation scheme of uplink control channel combining with dynamic indication and semi-static indication. The method can be achieved in a simple and easy way, and simultaneously can be used in FDD system and TDD system.

To realize the technical solution of the embodiments of the present invention corresponding to strategy I mentioned above, the embodiments of the present invention also provides a terminal equipment with the structural diagram shown in FIG. 10, which comprises:

Receiving module 101, is used for receiving downlink control information carrying ARI information, and the downlink control information is sent by the network side equipment;

Determination module 102, is used for determining the uplink control channel resources for multi-antenna transmission according to the initial channel resource group or initial channel resource configured by the network side equipment, and the offset values corresponding to ARI information received by receiving module 101.

In specific application scene, receiving module 101 is also used for receiving the higher layer signaling carrying the initial channel resource group information or the initial channel resource information, and the higher layer signaling is sent by the network side equipment.

In a further aspect, determination module 102 is applied to:

When the receiving module 101 receives the initial channel resource group configured by the network side equipment, determination module 102 determines the uplink control channel resources for multi-antenna transmission according to all initial channel resources in the initial channel resource group and the offset value corresponding to ARI information received by receiving module 101 respectively.

When receiving module 101 receives the initial channel resource configured by the network side equipment, determination module 102 determines the first offset channel resource according to the initial channel resource and the offset value corresponding to ARI information received by receiving module 101, while determines the other offset channel resources according to the first offset channel resource and a fixed offset value; and then determines both of the above resources as the uplink control channel resources for multi-antenna transmission.

It needs to be pointed out that when receiving module 101 receives the initial channel resource group configured by the network side equipment, the offset value corresponding to ARI information is one or more offset values; when it receives the initial channel resource configured by the network side equipment, the offset value corresponding to ARI information is one offset value;

Therein, when receiving module 101 receives the initial channel resource group configured by the network side equipment, determination module 102 is applied to:

Determine offset channel resources according to all initial channel resources in the initial channel resource group and the same offset value respectively, and determines all offset channel resources as offset channel resource group; or,

Determine offset channel resources according to all initial channel resources in the initial channel resource group and the different offset values respectively, and determines all offset channel resources as offset channel resource group.

It needs to be pointed out that the fixed offset value is acquired by the following methods:

Receiving module 101 acquires the fixed offset value by receiving the higher layer signaling carrying the offset value information, and the higher layer signaling is sent by network side equipment; or,

The terminal equipment acquires the fixed offset value from the preset offset values corresponding to the network side equipment.

Correspondingly, the embodiments of the present invention also provides network side equipment, with the structural diagram shown in FIG. 11, which comprises:

Determination module 111, is used for determining the uplink control channel resources for multi-antenna transmission according to the initial channel resource group or the initial channel resource configured for a terminal equipment with multi-antenna.

Sending module 112, is used for sending the downlink control information carrying ARI information to configure uplink control channel resource for terminal equipment, and the ARI information corresponds offset value to the terminal equipment.

Therein, sending module 112 can also be used for sending higher layer signaling carrying the initial channel resource group information or the initial channel resource information to the terminal equipment.

In specific application scene, determination module 111 is applied to:

When the initial channel resource group is configured to the terminal equipment, determination module 111 determines the uplink control channel resources for multi-antenna transmission according to all initial channel resources in the initial channel resource group and the offset values respectively;

When the initial channel resource is configured to the terminal equipment, determination module 111 determines the first offset channel resource according to the initial channel resource and the offset value, while determines the other offset channel resources according to the first offset channel resource and the fixed offset values, and determines the above resources as the uplink control channel resources for multi-antenna transmission.

It needs to be pointed out that when the initial channel resource group is configured to the terminal equipment, specific offset value refers to one or more offset values; and when the initial channel resource is configured to the terminal equipment, specific offset value refers to one offset value;

Therein, when the initial channel resource group is configured to the terminal equipment, determination module 111 is used for determining the uplink control channel resources for multi-antenna transmission according to all initial channel resources in the initial channel resource group and the same offset values respectively, or according to all initial channel resources in the initial channel resource group and the different offset values respectively;

Furthermore, when the initial channel resource is configured to the terminal equipment, the specific configuration method of the fixed offset value is that sending module 112 sends higher layer signaling carrying the fixed offset value information to the terminal equipment, or presets the fixed offset value in the network side equipment and the terminal equipment.

Compared with available technology, the embodiments of the present invention have the following advantages:

Technical solutions of the present invention the uplink control channel resources are configured to a terminal equipment, by means of a semi-statically configured initial resource then dynamically configured ACK/NACK Resource Indication (ARI) information to indicate the selection result or offset information, thus achieve the resource allocation scheme of uplink control channel combining with dynamic indication and semi-static indication. The method can be achieved in a simple and easy way, and simultaneously can be used in FDD system and TDD system.

With the description of the preferred embodiments hereinabove, those skilled in the art can clearly understand that the present invention can be realized with the aid of software and necessary commonly used hardware platforms, or the aid of hardware of course, but the former is a preferred embodiment in most cases. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present invention or the part contributing to the current technology can be reflected in the form of a software product, which is saved in a memory medium comprising indications to enable a computer equipment, which could be a personal computer, a server or a network device, etc. to carry out the methods for each embodiment of the present invention.

Technical personnel of the field can understand that the attached drawings only refer to the diagram of a preferred embodiment, and the module or procedure is not necessary for the implementation of the embodiments of the present invention.

Technical personnel of the field can understand that the module in the unit of an embodiment can be distributed in such unit based on embodiment description, or located in one or more units of another embodiment through corresponding changes. Modules of the embodiments mentioned above can be merged into one module, or further divided into multiple submodules.

The number of the aforementioned embodiments of the present invention is only used for description rather than for representing advantages or disadvantages.

Only several specific embodiments of the present invention are released above. However, the present invention is not only comprised of those. Any change that technical personnel of the field can predict are still under the scope of the present invention. 

1. A configuration method for uplink control channel resources under multi-antenna scene, wherein, which comprises: a terminal equipment with multi-antenna receives downlink control information carrying ARI information, and the downlink control information is sent by a network side equipment; the terminal equipment selects one channel resource group or one channel resource corresponding to the ARI information from the initial channel resource set configured by the network side equipment, and the initial channel resource set comprises multiple channel resource groups or channel resources; the terminal equipment determines the channel resources in the selected channel resource group as uplink control channel resources for multi-antenna transmission, or determines the selected channel resource and the other channel resources determined by the selected channel resource and the offset values as uplink control channel resources for multi-antenna transmission.
 2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein, the initial channel resource set is configured to the terminal equipment by the higher layer signaling carrying the initial channel resource set information, and the higher layer signaling is sent by the network side equipment; therein, a channel resource group or a channel resource in the initial channel resource set is only allocated to a unique terminal equipment in the same subframe.
 3. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein, when the terminal equipment can use the implicit resource coresponding to the control channel element (CCE) of PDCCH, the specific size of the ARI information is ┌log₂(N+1)┐ bits, and various values of ARI information correspond to the implicit resource and all channel resource groups or channel resources in the initial channel resource set respectively; when the terminal equipment cannot use the implicit resource corresponding to PDCCH CCE or PUCCH format 3 is used to transmit feedback information, the specific size of ARI information is ┌log₂ N┐ bits, and various values of ARI information correspond to all channel resource groups or channel resources in the initial channel resource set respectively; therein, N is the number of channel resource groups or channel resources comprised in the initial channel resource set configured by the network side equipment.
 4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein, the specific ARI information is: the information carried by the newly-increased bits in the downlink control information (DCI) sent by the network side equipment; or, the information is obtained by joint coding with the other original information in the DCI sent by the network side equipment: or, the information is carried by the original information field in the DCI sent by the network side equipment.
 5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein, the methods for obtaining the offset values comprise: the terminal equipment obtains the offset values by receiving the higher layer signaling sent by the network side equipment; or, the offset values are preset in the terminal equipment and the network side equipment.
 6. A terminal equipment with multi-antenna, wherein, which comprises: receiving module, is used for receiving downlink control information carrying ARI information, and the downlink control information is sent by the network side equipment; selection module, is used for selecting one channel resource group or one channel resource corresponding to ARI information received by the receiving module from the initial channel resource set configured by the network side equipment, and the initial channel resource set comprises multiple channel resource groups or channel resources; offset module, is used for obtaining the other channel resources through the selected channel resource and the offset values when the selected result of the selection module is one channel resource; determination module, is used for determining the channel resources in the channel resource group selected by the selection module as uplink control channel resources for multi-antenna transmission, or determining the channel resource selected by the selection module and the other channel resources obtained from the offset module as uplink control channel resources for multi-antenna transmission.
 7. The terminal equipment as claimed in claim 6, wherein, the receiving module is also used for: receiving the higher layer signaling carrying the initial channel resource set information, and the higher layer signaling is sent by network side equipment; therein, a channel resource group or a channel resource in the initial channel resource set is only allocated to a unique terminal equipment in the same subframe.
 8. The terminal equipment as claimed in claim 6, wherein, the specific ARI information is: the information is carried by the newly-increased bits in the DCI sent by the network side equipment and received by the receiving module; or, the information is obtained by joint coding with the other original information in the DCI sent by the network side equipment and received by the receiving module; or, the information is carried by the original information field in the DCI sent by the network side equipment and received by the receiving module.
 9. A configuration method for uplink control channel resources under multi-antenna scene, wherein, which comprises: a network side equipment selects one channel resource group or one channel resource from the initial channel resource set configured to a terminal equipment with multi-antenna, and the initial channel resource set comprises multiple channel resource groups or channel resources; the network side equipment determines the channel resources in the selected channel resource group as uplink control channel resources for multi-antenna transmission of the terminal equipment, or the selected channel resource and the other channel resources determined by the selected channel resource and the offset values as uplink control channel resources for multi-antenna transmission of the terminal equipment; the network side equipment sends downlink control information carrying ARI information in order to configure uplink control channel resources for the terminal equipment, and the ARI information corresponds to the channel resource group or the channel resource to the terminal equipment.
 10. The method as claimed in claim 9, wherein, the initial channel resource set is specifically configured to the terminal equipment through the higher layer signaling carrying the initial channel resource set information, and the higher layer signaling is sent by the network side equipment; therein, the network side equipment ensures that one channel resource group or one channel resource in the initial channel resource set is only allocated to a unique terminal equipment in the same subframe by scheduling information.
 11. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein, when the network side equipment determines that the terminal equipment can use the implicit resource corresponding to PDCCH CCE, the specific size of ARI information is ┌log₂(N+1)┐ bits, and various values of the ARI information correspond to the implicit resource and all channel resource groups or channel resources in the initial channel resource set respectively; when the network side equipment determines that the terminal equipment cannot use the implicit resource corresponding to PDCCH CCE, or determines that PUCCH format 3 is used to transmit feedback information, the specific size of ARI information is ┌log₂ N┐ bits, and various values of the ARI information correspond to all channel resource groups or channel resources in the initial channel resource set respectively; therein, N is the number of channel resource groups or channel resources in the initial channel resource set configured by the network side equipment.
 12. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein, the specific ARI information is: the information is carried by the newly-increased bits in the DCI sent by the network side equipment to the terminal equipment; or the information is obtained by joint coding with the other original information in the DCI sent by the network side equipment to the terminal equipment; or the information is carried by the original information field in the DCI sent by the network side equipment to the terminal equipment.
 13. The method as claimed in claim 9, wherein, the specific methods for configuring the offset values is: the network side equipment sends higher layer signaling carrying the offset value information to the terminal equipment; or, the offset values are preset in the network side equipment and the terminal equipment.
 14. A network side equipment, wherein, which comprises: selection module, is used for selecting one channel resource group or one channel resource from the initial channel resource set configured to a terminal equipment with multi-antenna, and the initial channel resource set comprises multiple channel resource groups or channel resources; offset module, is used for obtaining offset channel resources through the channel resources and the offset values when the selected result of the selection module is one channel resource; determination module, is used for determining the channel resources in the channel resource group selected by the selection module as uplink control channel resources for multi-antenna transmission of the terminal equipment, or determining the other channel resources according to the channel resource selected by the selection module and the offset values obtained from offset module as uplink control channel resources for multi-antenna transmission of the terminal equipment; sending module, is used for sending downlink control information carrying ARI information to configure uplink control channel resources for terminal equipment, and the ARI information corresponds to one channel resource group or one channel resource selected by the selection module to terminal equipment.
 15. The network side equipment as claimed in claim 14, wherein, the sending module is also used for: sending higher layer signaling carrying the initial channel resource set information to the terminal equipment; therein, the sending module ensures that the one channel resource group or one channel resource comprised in the initial channel resource set is only alloacated to a unique terminal equipment in the same subframe by sending scheduling information to the terminal equipment. 16-47. (canceled) 